Checkmate
by KaibaGirl007
Summary: Kaiba Corp is about to unveil a new product which contains a deadly game. Would you be able to kill your friends? Part 3 of 5
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**  
I would just like to state that I have no rights Yugioh, or any of the other pop culture references used in this story. Emma however is my own creation.  
Research has gone into making this story but may not be 100 accurate.  
It is written based mainly on the US dubbed version of the show, as that is what I am more familiar with.  
This story has been rated M as it contains scenes of violence, and death that some people may find disturbing.  
This is the third story of a five part series.

**Chapter 1**

The gang had spent all day together hanging out and having fun. They where currently at Bakura's place as they were about to go their separate ways for the rest of the day. It was nearing time for Tea to start her latest part-time job as a dancer but she sat in the hall with her back slumped against the wall next to the closed bathroom door as some of the others started to join her in her wait.

"You've been in there for over quarter of an hour." Tea shouted as she banged on the door.

"Well when ya gotta go, ya gotta go." Joey joked, only to receive an un-amused look from Tea.

"I can't do this!" came a muffled cry from the bathroom where Emma had locked herself in.

"I did everything I could to get you this job and now you're not even going to give it a go!" Tea said quite angrily.

_Since she had announced that she was staying in Domino city, Emma had been living at Bakura's and jumping from job to job to pay her way. Of course she didn't have to do this as her brother, Maximillion Pegasus, had offered to pay for everything that she wanted, but she had refused as she needed to be independent for herself. _

"Para-Para dancing for fun is one thing but this…" Emma began to tell Tea but stopped to find the right word that best described what she felt without hurting her friend's feelings. She couldn't find one. "Well, this is something else."

Sarah pushed her way through the now crowded hall to reach the door. She was the newest member of the gang after meeting Bakura just a few weeks back when he had bumped in to her as she entered Yugi's Game shop. She was a very friendly person and had gotten along well with the rest of the gang. "Oh come on, it can't be that bad." she assured.

There was a brief pause of silence before the lock could be heard turning as Emma opened the bathroom door. She stood in the doorway wearing an outfit that Tea had brought for her, which consisted of very high platform shoes, long knee high socks, a micro-mini skirt, and a short cropped shirt. Tea had applied make-up to Emma's face and bunched her hair in to pigtails.

"I look like a SailorMoon reject." Emma complained, as she saw Sarah cover her mouth with her hand and Joey, Tristan, Duke and Bakura trying their best to contain their laughter.

Yugi being the nice person that he is, tried to make Emma feel better as he told her; "Actually I think you look ……" but was cut off by laughter from Sarah and the rest of the boys.

"That's it, I'm not going!" Emma yelled as she retreated back in to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door once more.

Tea glared at the others who stopped laughing instantly. "I'm leaving in the next five minutes with or without you." she told Emma before she stormed off down the hall.

Emma stood leaning against the door pouting at the thought of making a fool of herself. At first it hadn't sounded so bad when Tea had suggested the idea, but on seeing the outfit half an hour ago she knew that it was a mistake. There was no way she was ever going to leave the safety of the house looking like that.

But she couldn't help feeling bad about herself. Tea had helped her out when she needed it and here she was throwing it back in her face. She let out a big sigh as she unlocked the door. The least she could do was give it a go.

This evening they had been assigned to dance in a bar that was popular amongst many businessmen, mainly for its karaoke Emma told herself over and over again as she felt uneasy from all of the unwanted glances that she was receiving. She tried to extend her skirt length but to no avail, as she saw that Tea seemed unaffected by all of the attention.

She could hear the music start for the next song and forced a huge fake smile on her face as the two of them began to dance to the beat of the music before the singers had even said a word.

_There was something in your voice,  
That was telling me don't be too sure,  
Arousing my suspicions,  
I have never felt before,  
I thought we had it made,  
I thought you'd never go away._

_But now you're suddenly like a stranger,  
And you're leaving our love behind,  
Of all the things I was ever planning for,  
This was the last thing on my mind._

Glancing across at Tea once more, Emma wondered how she would ever manage to do this all evening, and was surprised that Tea could do it day in day out on a regular basis. She must really want those dance lessons that she was saving for.

As the song finished Emma was exhausted. She knew there was no way that she would be able to keep it up for much longer. She told Tea that she needed the bathroom for 'girl issues' and made her way off the stage and through the bar in search of an exit out of the place. She didn't care that she was giving up as all she wanted to do was get out of this place, even if that meant abandoning her friend. She'd find a way to make it up to Tea eventually.

The exit was now in sight and Emma quickened her pace as she curved her way around the tables, only to stumble in the hazardous shoes that she wore. She felt herself land on the lap of a young businessman who was seated nearby. She quickly got back on to her feet and apologised before she gasped. "Seto? What are you doing here?"

Wearing a smart business type suit and not being instantly recognizable out of his usual style of outfits, Kaiba stared back at her blankly. It also took him a moment to recognize Emma. "Nice outfit." he smirked. "I should ask you the same question."

"I …. erm …" she stuttered as she tried to extend the skirt once more as she felt herself burning from embarrassment. What was she meant to do or say next? "It's a job and it pays." she forced a smile across her bright red face.

"So you'd rather humiliate yourself here than work for me?" Kaiba glared at her.

"We've already talked about this." Emma protested. Kaiba had offered her a job at his company which she had refused more than once as Joey was already starting rumours about the two of them saying that she had stayed just to be with Kaiba. This was partly true even though she wasn't going to admit it. She seated herself next to him and lightened the tone of her voice. "You're avoiding my question, why are you here?"

"I'm waiting to meet with some possible business associates." Kaiba told her as he continued to type on his laptop like he had been doing before Emma had fallen on him. He looked up to meet Emma's sceptical stare. "Believe me, this wasn't my choice of place to hold the meeting."

"So what's the story about these people?" Emma asked.

"The company's called Checkmate, and they specialize in 3D-TV imagery." he informed her still typing away.

"Sounds dodgy to me." Emma told him as she thought it over in her head.

"I've done my research." Kaiba went on. "They're a fairly new company that's only been around for a few years. I've seen nothing negative about them, and just recently their advances in technology are almost as great as my own." He glared at Emma in a friendly type way. "But since you don't work for me further details aren't necessary for you to know."

Emma watched as she saw Kaiba's eyes flash back at his laptop screen before he quickly slammed it shut. "You okay?" she asked as she knew what had just happened after witnessing it happen before. Someone somewhere was sending paedophilic images to Kaiba's laptop, which was disturbing on it's own, but these images were of himself and his stepfather which disturbed him even more.

"I'm fine." Kaiba replied with his eyes closed. "With all my new security programmes in place they're not happening as frequently." He opened his eyes and for a moment stared out across the crowded bar.

Emma stared in the same direction and watched Tea as she continued to dance. "I don't know how she does it." she told Kaiba. "She's always so happy and has a positive outlook at everything. Sometimes I wish that I could be a stronger person like that."

"And what happened to just being yourself?" Kaiba asked.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to have qualities the same or similar to that of a friend." Emma told him more sternly than she meant to.

"I think you're fine just the way you are." was Kaiba's reply to Emma's previous statement.

"Thanks." she smiled back at him and could see a group of three men approaching their table. She got up and walked away so that the meeting could get underway.

Emma stared at the exit and then back at the stage. Surely if Tea could put up with the dancing night after night then she could do it just this once. She let out a sigh and turned to head back towards the stage. If she wanted to be a stronger person then she was going to have to start sooner or later.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The next day, Emma sat on her bed as she searched through the vacancies in the newspapers. One night of dancing was all she could manage and had made it clear to Tea that she would not be trying anything like that ever again. The papers almost covered the bed as she had them spread out while she circled the ones that sounded okay.

The door bell rang, but Emma stayed where she sat as it was probably Sarah arriving for her date with Bakura. It was nice that the two of them were going out together but Emma couldn't help feeling that she was in their way.

There was a knock on her room door just before it opened and Bakura popped his head round. "There's somebody here to see you."

Emma was surprised as she hadn't been expecting anyone but gestured for Bakura to send the visitor in anyway. She saw the younger of the Kaiba brothers enter her room and greeted him with a huge smile. "Hi Mokuba, please excuse the mess." With one arm movement she wiped the bed clear of the newspapers so that he could sit down. "So, what brings you here?"

Mokuba sat down and handed a letter to her. "Seto asked me to give you this."

Emma opened the folded paper to find that he had invited her for dinner, again. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline from his invitation." she sighed.

"Why?" Mokuba asked rather surprised.

"Because I know what he's going to say, and my answer still hasn't changed." she told Mokuba as she wondered just what it would take for Kaiba to get the message that she wasn't going to work for him.

"Do you really hate the idea of working for him that much?" Mokuba asked.

"No, I don't." Emma told him shaking her head. "It's just that people are starting to talk and make accusations already about the two of us."

"You should know by now that Seto doesn't care about what other people say and think." Mokuba said raising his voice slightly.

Emma had to agree that what Mokuba had said was true, well mostly. "But I do." she said as she was still very self-conscious even though she did her best to hide it.

"So then you don't like my brother and me anymore?" Mokuba asked sadly.

"What!" Emma exclaimed in surprise that he could even think that she didn't like them anymore. She stared at Mokuba who was now looking at her with those big sad eyes that showed up from time to time. She bit the inside of her check unsure of what to do, before she finally said; "I think it's time that we paid your brother a visit and sorted this once and for all."

Together Emma and Mokuba entered Kaiba's office to find him seated behind his desk as usual. He looked surprised to see the both of them march up to his desk and was about to say something to them when Emma beat him to it as she spoke first.

"Don't say anything or even get up until I've said what I've come here to say." she told Kaiba just as he had opened his mouth, which closed again after she had finished her order. "I know that this invitation is just to ask me to work for you, and since my little talk with Mokuba earlier I've decided to give you my final answer." She took a deep breath. "I would love to work for you, if you'll still have me."

Kaiba remained quiet as he picked up his pen and started to scribble something that Emma couldn't quite see thanks to the laptop blocking her view. He handed her a small piece of paper and leaned back in his chair.

"What's this?" Emma asked as she looked down at the cheque that she had just been handed.

"That's your first month's salary in advance." Kaiba told her as a smile crept on his face. "Welcome on board."

Emma smiled back and then to Mokuba who was also smiling.

"But there is one catch." Kaiba began and caught Emma's attention once more. "I'm afraid that platform shoes, short skirts and tops aren't part of the company's dress code. Unless of course you want to wear them."

"You've got no chance of seeing me like that again." Emma laughed.

"Shame." sighed Kaiba as he folded his arms and that amused smile made its way on to his face. "I kind of liked those pigtails."

Emma reached across the desk and playfully hit Kaiba on the arm.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Emma ran as fast as she could up the steps that lead to the KC building. She was late for work and having difficulty running in her heeled shoes. As she passed through the doors of the building she could see the elevator about to close. "Hold!" she yelled.

Kaiba who was stood in the elevator placed his foot out to stop the doors from closing. "You're late." he told Emma as she entered.

"I know." Emma panted. "The public transport from my new place is a joke." Once her first pay cheque had cleared she had moved out of Bakura's and in to her own apartment. "I could really do with getting my own wheels."

"It's not like we could do anything until the guests get here anyway." Kaiba said which let Emma know that her lateness was okay.

The panpipe music that Emma loathed played in the background. "Didn't you even consider changing this horrid music?" she asked him.

"Oh, I considered it." Kaiba replied.

"And?" Emma asked wanting to know more.

"And as you can hear, I have no plans to change it." Kaiba laughed to himself.

Emma covered her ears with her hands, as she really hated the music that much. She glared at Kaiba who was amused by the whole thing. She began to sing the first song that entered her head.

"Here's a llama, there's a llama,  
And another little llama  
Fuzzy llama, funny llama,  
Llama, llama, duck.

Llama, llama, cheesecake, llama,  
Tablet, brick, potato, llama,  
Llama, llama, mushroom, llama,  
Llama, llama, duck."

She could see Kaiba's smile turn in to laughter, which she hardly ever saw, so she guessed that she could put up with riding the elevator like this every once in a while.

_Is that how it's told now? __  
__Is it all so old? __  
__Is it made of lemon juice? __  
__Doorknob, ankle, cold, __  
__Now my song is getting thin __  
__I've run out of luck __  
__Time for me to retire now __  
__And become a duck. _

Emma was still humming the same song as she placed her papers in to a file in her office. She made a sarcastic mental note to thank Sarah, who had introduced her to the song that was now driving her insane after she had sang through it for the dozenth time in a row.

With all her things ready for the presentation she made her way next door in to Kaiba's office. "Are you ready for the presentation?" she asked as she closed the door.

"As always." came Kaiba's reply as he sat typing away on his laptop.

Emma made her way over to the sofa and sat down. "I can't believe that it's taken just three weeks from when the contract was signed to today's revealing of the final product."

"Both of the technologies were there, it was just a case of bringing the two together." Kaiba was still typing away on the keyboard. "I think that this is going to be one of the most successful deals that my company has had."

"Maybe." Emma said but she still felt that there was something dodgy about the whole thing. But Kaiba was more than confident about the deal so she let it slip from her mind as she was probably worrying about nothing.

The phone rang and Kaiba answered it right away before it had chance to ring again. "Kaiba." There was a knock at the door. "What do you mean they're not coming!" He watched as Mokuba entered and sat on the sofa next to Emma. "I see, but things will still be continuing as planned as my team and I have spent too much time and effort to cancel the revealing at the last moment. I'll have someone contact them later to inform them of how it all went." he put the phone down and turned towards the sofa. "That was a call to say that Checkmate's representatives and guests are unable to attend so ……" He stopped as he slammed his laptop shut.

Emma felt Mokuba fidget beside her. Even though he was dealing with his brother's situation quite well he still felt really uncomfortable every time that the pop-ups happened.

A short period of silence past before Kaiba spoke. "What is it you want little brother?" he asked Mokuba.

"I just came to let you know that the first lot of guests have arrived, and are waiting in the presentation room." Mokuba explained.

"Then I guess we had better go show our faces and get this thing started." Emma said as she rose from the sofa with her file tucked under one arm.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The two Kaiba brothers and Emma entered the presentation room where three guests, two boys and one girl, were waiting. With Emma in lead they descended the stairs that led down in to a curved seating area. The room was huge and at the top were windows that looked out from the control room for the product that would later be revealed. The control room however was empty as all the things that needed to be done today could be done via remote control so the extra staff wasn't necessary for the big reveal.

"Who are these people?" Kaiba asked Emma curiously.

"I held three different competitions to win the chance to be here for the presentation, and these are the winners." Emma informed him of how she had chosen the guests which she was left in charge of arranging.

They could hear the three guests talking as they got nearer.

"Even without the King of Games title, he's still a far superior duellist than what Yugi will ever be." Said a boy with black hair who was wearing a soccer shirt and dueldisk. The other two nodded in agreement.

"At least we all agree on something." Said a boy with green hair, wearing a long black coat, as he glared coldly at the girl.

"Yeah well I still think that Ishizu wasn't a worthy opponent for him during Battle City." Said the girl who had short black hair with blue highlights, as she glared back in to icy cold blue eyes with her own grey eyes. "You two are obviously blinded by her appearance because she's nothing more than a …."

"Welcome to Kaiba Corp." Emma said interrupting the girl's sentence. "I hope that our staff have been friendly and helpful, and that transportation met the high standards that were set for them." she wanted to make sure they had been treated right and that the limo rides had done there job of impressing them. She didn't want to mess up and ruin Kaiba's good company name in the process. "Before we continue any further please allow me to introduce you to Seto Kaiba himself."

The three guests stood next to each other as Kaiba was made to welcome each one. Emma searched through her papers to find the details that she had on each of the competition winners.

"This is Andrew." Emma said as they stood next to the boy with dark hair and dueldisk. "He won the small duelling tournament. Notes from the judges say that he duels using a deck similar to your own, and shows respect for all of his opponents regardless of their experience with the Duel Monsters game."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you." said Andrew as he shook Kaiba's hand. "And I was wondering if, when this whole presentation thing is over, you would honour me with a duel?"

"We'll see." replied Kaiba before he moved along to the girl who was next in line.

"This is Zene. She won the competition for knowing the most knowledge about you and your company. Notes from the judges say that she knew every single detail that had ever been made public." Emma watched as Kaiba slowly and uneasily shook hands with the girl who he knew nothing about, and in return she knew a fair bit about him.

"I knew that I'd get to meet you someday." Zene smiled as she noticed the worried look that was starting to appear on Kaiba's face. "Don't look so worried, I'm not a stalker or some crazed fan girl."

"Thanks, I think." Kaiba said unsurely as he took back his hand and moved along to meet the last guest.

"And finally we have Marcus. He won the cosplay contest. Notes from the judges say that he looked so much like his impersonation and even had the same attitude." Emma braced herself for Kaiba's reaction.

"I wonder who your impersonation was of." Kaiba said as he held out his hand.

Marcus ignored the hand shake gesture and just glared at Kaiba.

Kaiba turned and glared at Emma as he realised that he was the one that Marcus had impersonated. He was not amused.

"This contest was your brother's idea, not mine." Emma explained as she felt his stare burn through her.

Kaiba turned to face Mokuba who was hiding his amusement behind both of his hands. Kaiba's expression lightened as he watched his brother laugh, and began to see the funny side of it.

The door to the presentation room opened and Kaiba's bodyguard called down to Emma. "Miss Pegasus, the rest of your guests have arrived."

"Thank you Roland, please send them through and close the doors." Emma shouted back up as she put down her folder on the table at the side of the room.

"Are you any relation to Maximillion Pegasus?" Andrew asked her with a curious look on his face.

"He's my brother." Emma nodded, as she saw Andrew look surprised by the answer. Zene just stared at her with an expression that was hard to make out just what she was thinking. Marcus stared at her too, his stare was cold and unfriendly and Emma knew that she wasn't going to get along very well with him. She moved away towards the stairs to greet the new guests and also to escape any further conversation about her brother.

Kaiba joined her in her walk. "I guess you've invited more _fans_ for me to greet." he said in a half amused tone.

"Well actually ….." Emma laughed nervously as laughter could be heard and Yugi and the rest of the gang appeared in the doorway.

"You invited the Geek Squad!" Kaiba gaped in an over-exaggerated surprise.

"Insult them all you like but they're still my friends." Emma sighed before adding. "And I don't believe that you're surprised about this one bit." She continued her way as Kaiba remained where he was.

"Hey Em." An over excited Joey waved down at her. "There's someone I wanna introduce ya to." He dragged a girl behind him down the stairs to meet Emma. "This is my sister, Serenity."

"Hi." smiled Serenity.

"Hi." Emma smiled back. "I've heard so much about you, mainly because Joey hasn't talked about anything else since you told him that you would be visiting." she glanced at Joey before returning to speak to Serenity. "So how was your journey?"

"I have a bad case of jetlag, but it was worth it just to see everybody again, and to finally meet you too." Serenity answered.

"Aw thanks. Hope you don't mind but I need to talk to your brother for a moment." Emma pulled Joey to one side away from Serenity and the others who had begun to join them. "Your sister is the secret person that you were inviting!" she hissed at him.

"Yeah, she arrived last night and I thought it'd be a cool surprise." Joey said almost unable to control his excitement.

"I thought that you had invited Mai." Emma said hitting herself on the forehead before resting it on her palm. She saw Joey wear that look that he always wore anytime that somebody suggested that the two of them were an item. Emma wondered if she looked like that every time that he suggested the same about Kaiba and herself. "She is supposed to be your friend after all, but you don't seem to involve her with anything that you do. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the poor girl started to think that she didn't have any friends."

"Well if she does, then it's not my fault that she doesn't know how to use a phone." Joey said, indicating that Mai should be the one to call him.

"Zip it Wheeler." Kaiba broke apart the conversation. "In case you haven't noticed Emma has a presentation to be getting on with and doesn't have time to stand around chatting to you."

Emma glared at Kaiba as Joey walked away mumbling. She hated the way that he switched from the person that she got along with so well to somebody else whenever the others were around. She never could understand why he did that, and hated the way that he also changed towards her during that time too. She got the hint that told her to hurry up and start the presentation without welcoming the rest of her friends.

She made her way back to the table and opened her folder for her speech notes. "May I have your attention please?" Emma called out through the murmur of talking. "I would like to start by saying that due to unforeseen circumstances representatives of Checkmate and their guests are sadly unable to attend this presentation of their first joint product with Kaiba Corp. Therefore I would just like to state that we here at Kaiba Corp can not take all the credit for the final result."

Looking around the room she could see that she had full attention from everybody. The look she was receiving from Kaiba told her that he didn't think that the unplanned part of her speech was necessary. She continued; "As I'm sure that most of you are aware, Kaiba Corp prides itself with its high standards in technology that have changed the ways that we find to entertain ourselves, and 3DTV is about to become the new jewel in our crown." She clicked a button and a video demonstrating the new product played on the big screen that was behind her. "Combined with the efforts and knowledge of our co-partner, Checkmate, we are about to change the way that you watch television forever.

"3DTV allows you to watch your favourite programmes, films and events in full three dimensional holographic imagery in the comfort of your own home. Allowing each person to have their own one-of-a-kind perspective at any given time, you will never have to watch the same programme rerun ever again " Emma clicked another button on the remote and almost instantly the television screen projected the holographic images in front of and around them. She saw Kaiba smile as everybody gasped in amazement at what they were witnessing.

The video that was being shown wasn't anything fancy, just a duel between the two Kaiba brothers which had been recorded only a few days earlier. This was what Kaiba had originally intended to use 3DTV for, so that his next tournament would be able to be witnessed more realistically by people who were unable to attend the actual duel. But as Emma had pointed out, it would become more popular if it was aimed at a wider audience other than just Duel Monster fans.

As Mokuba was summoning what looked like a baby version of the Blue Eyes White Dragon the images began to flicker quite violently. Emma and Kaiba exchanged a look of panic as the new technology was malfunctioning at one of the worse possible times. There was nothing more unprofessional than having a new product showing any faults during the revealing. Emma had no choice but to stop the demonstration and apologize, but as she reached for the remote she felt herself become dizzy and dropped to the floor.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Are you okay?" a voice asked Emma as she began to open her eyes. She saw Yugi and Yami looking down at her.

Rubbing her head as if she had bumped it she sat upright. "I think so." She looked around and found that they were no longer in the presentation room at Kaiba Corp. She also noticed that everybody was now wearing a strange looking collar.

"What kind of a lame answer is that?" Tristan's voice could be heard across the room as he shouted at Kaiba.

"It's your contraption, so you gotta know what's going on." Joey protested.

"I have nothing to do with this." Kaiba told them both. "If I had then do you really think that I'd have included you Wheeler?"

"You know he does have a point there." Duke said to Joey who was becoming angrier with Kaiba than what was usual.

"I've had enough of your attitude, _Rich boy." _Joey rolled up his sleeves and was ready tostrike out at Kaiba.

"Bring it on." Kaiba taunted in an amused tone.

"Stop it Joey, violence isn't the answer." Serenity had stepped between the two of them as Joey was about to lunge at Kaiba. Roland had also done the same thing.

"She's right, and besides he's not worth it." Tristan said as he pulled his friend back.

Kaiba found the whole thing amusing. "Being held back by your friends, that's pathetic."

"No." snapped Joey. "Pathetic would be hiding behind a paid bodyguard. At least I have people who care about me, unlike you."

Kaiba gritted his teeth and clenched his fists from Joey's words, and was about to strike out himself when he felt Mokuba grab hold of his arm. "You know that's not true Seto."

Emma sighed in disappointment as she watched the whole thing. She wondered if those two would ever be civilized towards each other.

"It's amazing at just how at little bit of confusion can turn people against each other." Yami said as he stood beside Yugi.

"Oh come off it." Emma laughed. "You're talking about Joey and Seto; they're always at each others throats."

"You do realize that talking to yourself is a sign of insanity?" Marcus told Emma, as he and everybody else apart from Yugi and Emma, was unable to see Yami. He stared at her coldly.

"And dressing up to look and act like someone else isn't?" Zene came to Emma's defence as she too wasn't very keen on Marcus.

"At least it's not as bad as knowing almost every detail about someone that you haven't even meet." Andrew joined in the disagreement only to receive a glare from Zene.

"See, I did tell you." Yami said as he and Emma watched as Bakura and Sarah tried their best to break up the argument between the three strangers.

"Hey guys look over there." Tea said as a robot with a TV screen for a head approached them.

"Welcome!" greeted the robot. "You have been chosen to help us in our research."

"Chosen, by whom?" Yugi was the quickest to ask the question that many of them were thinking.

Checkmate, flashed across the robots TV screen. Emma's stomach whirled as she felt that feeling of uneasiness return to her once more, whilst Kaiba demanded explanations.

"The fifteen of you are to participate in a little experiment of ours." The robot began to explain. "Knowing that you wouldn't agree to this normally we developed the technology to cause you all to have seizures and render you unconscious so that we were able to bring you all here. You have each been fitted with a collar that allows us to monitor your actions throughout the experiment."

"Oh yeah, well we'll soon see about that." Tristan said as he began to pull at his collar to remove it from his neck.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." the robot warned him.

Tristan ignored the warning and continued to pull the collar apart. The collar started to beep and Tristan let go unsure of what was going on. After several beeps there was a small explosion from the collar which tore open Tristan's throat sending his blood flying out covering Joey and Duke who were the closest to him.

"Tristan!" Joey screamed as he reached out and caught the falling limp body of his friend.

"Player, Tristan, has been eliminated. Fourteen players still remaining." a speaker voice told them.

They all looked horrified at what they had just seen. Serenity was crying hard in Tea's embrace as she herself fort hard to keep the tears back, Mokuba hid behind his brother, Sarah buried her face into Bakura's shoulder, and Duke struggled to keep the contents of his stomach. Everybody else was too much in shock to react to the incident as they stared down at Joey who held Tristan's dead body as he began to rock backwards and forwards and cry uncontrollably.

"As you have just witnessed, any tampering with the collars will cause them to self destruct." the robot casually explained. "This is just one of the ways that you could be eliminated from the game."

"A game?" Mokuba peered out from his hiding place.

"Our experiment, also referred to as _the game_." the TV screen cleared itself and then began to show a recording that supplied images to match what it was saying. "You will each be supplied with a bag, each of them containing; a map, compass and pen, bread and water, and a random useful item. One by one you will be sent out to explore the island that you are on. Along the way you may encounter other players who are your opponents. It is up to you if you decide to trust them or not to win the ultimate prize."

"What kind of prise?" Andrew asked.

"Your life." came the blunt reply. "There can only be one winner and to get that winner all other opponents must be eliminated. Every player elimination will be announced."

"This is sick." Bakura stated what everybody thought, Sarah still in his embrace. "What makes you think that any of us will play along with your twisted game?"

"As well as the threat from fellow players, there are also two eliminators on the island, but you will not be aware of their eliminations if any of you manage to overcome them. They are also a small number of traps scattered over the island which could be fatal to anyone who triggers them. And finally, they will be zones that you will not be allowed to access at certain times, so check your maps carefully; otherwise entering any of these zones will trigger your collar." The robot finished explaining everything that they would need to know.

The situation that they were in was taking its time sinking in to Emma's head. She still stared horrified at Tristan who was still being held by Joey as Yugi tried to comfort him.

"None of us will play this game so your plans have already failed." Tea said in a quivering voice. She looked round for support. "Who's with me on this?"

Emma looked round as everyone glanced from each other with suspicion in their eyes that told them that anyone of them could turn on each other. She herself wasn't worried about any of her friends turning against her but there were three strangers that she didn't know, and one of them she already didn't get along with. She stared at the three of them unable to make out what they were thinking from their blank expressions. She stared over to Kaiba who was quietly conversing with Roland, and stared back when he noticed that he was being watched. Slowly she raised her hand to show her support and watched as everybody else, including Kaiba and the three strangers, slowly did the same.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

They were each sent outside one by one, and Sarah was the fourth to be released. She walked slowly at first and then quickened her pace to join the other three who stood waiting at the end of the path that led to the building that they had been held in. The bag that she had been given bumped against her side as she broke in to a run to meet them.

"We're going to get out of this aren't we?" was the first thing that a worried Serenity asked her as she joined the group. Mokuba and Marcus where also there.

"Of course we are." Sarah assured all of them even though she felt unsure of it herself. "We all agreed that none of us would play along."

They waited a little while and the next person, Roland, had been released. He swiftly joined them and gestured for Mokuba to follow him. "Come, I have orders from your brother."

"What orders?" Mokuba asked surprised.

"We are to keep moving so that you don't become a sitting target for someone who's looking for an easy elimination." Roland explained eagerly wanting to continue away from the others.

"That's not the plan that we agreed to." Sarah told him. "There's safety in numbers so we all have to stick together." She tried to block Roland's way determined not to let him by.

"Mr Kaiba's orders are for me to guard Mokuba at all costs." Roland told her, and something in his voice sounded like he too agreed with what Sarah had said.

"How do we know that you aren't planning to _eliminate _himyourself?" Marcus butted in as he glared at the taller man.

"I trust Roland with my life, as does by brother." Mokuba stated as he stood beside Roland. He stared up at Sarah. "And I also trust my brother's judgement on what's best to do in this situation."

Knowing that they had to stick together as planned, Sarah reluctantly moved aside as she watched the two of them disappear out of sight. She had her own doubts about if they all would survive the twisted game that they were being forced in to playing and didn't want to decrease anybody else's chances of survival. At least she knew that they weren't out to get each other so the only things that they had to worry about were the other dangers that had been explained to them.

Kaiba was the next to be sent out for his own survival. He walked along the path from the building checking the contents of his bag. He saw that his useful item was nothing more than a cheap joke-shop smoke bomb. Disappointedly he began to zip up the bag as he heard a loud scream from ahead of him.

Kaiba broke out in to a sprint towards the direction of the scream. And saw two people standing whilst one lay on the ground with arrows sticking into their back, and could just make out another person hiding in the bushes nearby. Quickly he reached in to his half zipped up bag and threw the smoke bomb in the direction of the bushes where it caused a huge cloud of smoke as it impacted on its target.

Looking down at the body that lay on the ground Kaiba was able to see that Marcus had been shot three times. Serenity who had been the one who had screamed was sobbing as Sarah struggled to help hold her up whilst trying to process all of what was happening.

"Unless you both want to end up like cosplay boy, I suggest that you follow me." He told the two girls as he began to move away quickly before the smoke cleared and the attacker had time to pick out their next target.

Sarah pulled at Serenity to follow her as together they ran to catch up with Kaiba, leaving Marcus where he lay, dead, face down in the dirt.

"Player, Marcus, has been eliminated. Thirteen players still remaining." announced the speaker voice as Andrew was about to leave the building. He walked quickly not wanting to hang about as it was clear to him that the game had begun and wasn't going to be the next person to be eliminated.

As he reached the end of the path Andrew saw Marcus' body, blood had saturated the ground where he lay. He quickly scanned around to check that Marcus' attacker wasn't still around before he too continued off in to the rest of the island.

To him it was clear that nobody had planned to keep to the agreement that had been made just a short while earlier.

Emma was the last one to leave and was extremely disappointed to find that everybody had left. She couldn't believe that nobody had kept to the plan, but as she saw Marcus fear began to take control and understood that the others must have also felt the same thing and understood why they hadn't stuck around.

The first thing she had to do was to try and find some of the others, but Emma was unsure of where to start. She removed the map from her bag and stared at it blankly, before she placed it back in her bag as she decided that she would follow the river.

After half an hour's walk Emma came across Joey who was washing his hands in the river. "Joey!" she called out to him as she approached him. "Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm not okay!" Joey screamed at her. "I've just watched my best friend die in front of me, been told that I have to kill twelve other people if I want to live, become separated from my sister who I'm supposed to be looking after and now I'm lost." He paused as he scrubbed at his hands trying to clean every last drop of Tristan's blood from them and started to cry. "Why won't this stuff come off?"

Emma knelt down beside her friend and put her arm around him. "Its going to be okay, I'm here for you now."

"Don't you even touch me!" Joey spat as he forcefully pushed Emma away. "You're part of the reason why this happened and I hate you for it."

"I know you're just looking for somebody to blame, but Seto and I were totally unaware that this would happen." Emma said holding back the hurt that Joey had just caused her with his outburst.

"Two people are dead because of you, and one of them was your friend. How can you be so unaffected by what you've done?" Joey narrowed his eyes angrily. "You're turning out like him."

Emma had to take a deep breath to stop herself from bursting out in to tears. "You're angry and scared so I know that you don't mean anything that you're saying right now."

"If anything happens to Serenity I swear that I'll kill you myself." Joey's threat was real and Emma could tell that apart from the other things that he had said.

"Please, calm down." she begged him.

"I am calm!" Joey roared before he jerked forward as he was hit in the back by an arrow.

Emma did her best to catch him before he hit the ground but was cut off by another arrow that narrowly missed them both. She looked in the direction that it had come from and saw one of the eliminators holding a crossbow. He, or she it was hard to tell, was dressed in black, and aimed the crossbow directly at Emma.

As the eliminator pulled the trigger, it jammed. They threw the now useless weapon to one side and charged at Emma who was more concerned about Joey than her own safety.

She felt herself pulled away from her friend as the eliminator grabbed Emma by the shoulders as they tried to get a grip around her neck. Forcing her elbow backwards she managed to hit her attacker in the ribs and the hold on her was released. She turned and kicked them backwards and watched as they stumbled backwards and fell in to the river.

Emma focused her attention to Joey once more. He was whimpering in pain and bleeding quite badly. She tore the sleeve from her blouse as she applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding. Once again the eliminator grabbed hold of her and threw her across the ground where she ended up on top of her bag were she had left it by the river. She searched her bag for the item that it had contained.

As the eliminator approached her once more Emma spun round holding out an electric shocker. She pressed the button and blue sparks emerged and found their way to the soaking wet eliminator who jerked violently from the electric shock. Emma pressed the button again and again sending more sparks through the body of the eliminator as they fell to the ground. Once on the ground she zapped them once more and only stopped when the eliminator twitched very slightly.

Emma stared down in horror at what she had just done. The emotionless eyes of the dead eliminator stared up at her. She felt sick to her stomach and threw the electric shocker as far away from her as she could. She was unable to believe that she had just killed somebody even though it was in self defence. Joey whimpered, and Emma snapped back in to reality.

Emma crouched down and held Joey in her arms. The bleeding had become heavier even though she had done her best to try and ease it. Joey had almost lost consciousness. "Joey listen to me. You're hurt but everything is going to be okay." She felt her voice quiver as the doubts in her mind almost took control, but managed to keep it together as Joey gripped hold of her hand. "It's okay I won't leave you."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

Yugi had made it to the coast of the island. He stood near the edge of a cliff and looked out towards the horizon as he talked to Yami. "I can't see anyway out of this, we're all done for."

"No you're wrong." Yami told his upset friend. "We can beat this."

"We can't." Yugi cried as he remembered what had happened to Tristan and Marcus as well as everything that the robot had told them. "This isn't a duel or a shadow game, so there's no heart of the cards for us to rely on this time."

"Don't do this." Yami tried to coax Yugi away from the edge. "There will be another way out of this situation; we just have to stay strong together to find it."

Yugi turned so that he now faced Yami who was stood behind him. "But you said it yourself about how people turn against each other in times of confusion." He clenched his fists and screwed his eyes shut. "I'd rather die now so that I don't turn against my friends before they turn on me!" He turned back round and began to walk towards the very edge.

"No Yugi!" Yami cried as he lunged at him, pushing Yugi's spirit out so that he could take over. With Yugi having given up the will to take control he just ended up residing inside the millennium puzzle. "I'm sorry my friend, but I won't let you do this to yourself." Yami apologized. "You have so much more to live for."

Having gained control of Yugi's body, Yami attempted to back away from the edge but it was too late as Yugi's weight had already caused the earth to crumble. He felt his feet give way and began to slide over the edge. He hadn't fallen far when he felt himself stop as he had been gripped from behind and pulled back on to firmer ground. He landed on his behind and gaped at his rescuer.

"Oh my, that was a close one." Bakura sat panting after hurrying to help his friend. "It's a good job that I spotted you, but didn't you hear me call out to you?"

"I'm sorry that I didn't hear you." Yami apologized. "I was lost in my own thoughts."

"I know the feeling." Bakura sighed, only to be met with a suspicious stare from Yami. "Please don't look at me like that. Emma defeated the spirit, destroyed the millennium ring and has it hidden far away. And besides if I were still under his control I think that I would have pushed you over rather than pulled you back." In a more serious tone he said; "I'm not about to go on a killing spree, especially when my friends are involved."

"I didn't mean to offend you." Yami found himself apologizing again.

"It's okay." Bakura said as he got up on to his feet and extended his hand to help Yami. "Now, I think it would be a good idea to try and find more of the gang before nightfall."

Zene walked through the forest thinking to herself. Part of her wished that she never won the stupid competition that had caused her to become trapped in the situation that she was now in, and another part of her was glad in a very strange and unexplainable way. She knew that if it came down to it that she would be the one that would win and walk away with her freedom. Then why did she feel bad about the two that had already been eliminated? It wasn't like she had known them or could have done anything to prevent it from happening.

"Please help me!" came a cry for help from nearby.

Zene looked around and finally saw Tea up to her chest in what looked like quicksand. She hesitated for a moment as she didn't know this person and she could quite easily turn against her if she helped her. But then again she had been the one who had forever gone on about friendship and sticking together as they were all being released one by one, so surely she wouldn't pose a threat to herself. Zene didn't feel like taking a chance by rescuing her so was about to pass on by when she felt a surge of guilt build up. She sighed as she changed her mind and decided to help instead,

"Give me your hand." Zene said as she leaned across to help Tea, making sure that her feet were nowhere near the quicksand.

"I can't reach you." Tea cried as she tried her best to take hold of Zene's hand only to sink another couple of inches.

Zene grabbed hold of a nearby branch as she leaned in closer, her feet now sinking into the quicksand itself. "Just a little bit further." she said through gritted teeth as her fingertips touched Tea's.

_Crack!_ The branch broke and Zene went falling into the quicksand. She was now up to her waist in the horrible muck and tried to move only to sink down even further.

"I'm sorry that I got you into this." Tea said to her would-be rescuer.

"I'm the one who was stupid enough to try and help." Zene said with a fake smile. "I knew I should have kept on walking by."

Tea was unable to tell if the strange girl was joking or in fact telling the truth. She then heard her name being called by a familiar voice.

"Tea!" Yami shouted at the top of his voice. "Tea where are you!"

"We know that you're around here somewhere!" Bakura's voice also called out.

"Yugi! Bakura! Over here, I'm trapped in quicksand!" Tea yelled as loud as she could almost deafening Zene in the process.

"Tea!" Yami exclaimed as he came in to view and saw the two of them in the quicksand. He began to try and lean out to help them.

"Yugi stand back, I have a rope." Bakura told him as he pulled a rope from his bag and threw it out to Tea and Zene. Together they all pulled and Tea and Zene were free from the quicksand in no time at all.

"Oh Yugi, I was so worried that I'd never see you again." Tea said as she threw her arms around Yami. She broke away and turned to Zene. "And thank you, erm?"

"Zene." she replied quietly.

"You risked your life to try and save a stranger." Tea held her arms open to embrace Zene who in return held her hands up.

"Please, don't touch me." Zene told her as she also stepped backwards away from Tea. "I'm not the friendly hugging type person."

Yami looked up to the sky that was a mixture of oranges and purples. "The sun's almost set. I suggest that we find somewhere to rest for the night."

Together the four of them set off to find shelter. Even though Zene would have preferred to be on her own, she was glad that she had found people who would be there to look out for her as she had just done for one of them.

Andrew hid behind a tree as he had the feeling that he was being followed. He was determined to lose the person as the sky was dark and very little light remained, but as the person came closer and closer to his hiding spot he decided that the only thing to do would be to confront them. And since his item had been a first aid kit and not a weapon he would have to fight them fist to fist, but at least he still had his dueldisk that he could also use.

Without warning Andrew leapt out at his follower and pinned them against the tree with his dueldisk pushed up against their throat. The person that had followed him was the Dungeon Dice Monster creator, Duke Devlin.

"Take it easy!" Duke said as best as he could with the dueldisk digging in to his throat and both hands held up at his sides as though in surrender.

"You've been following me, why?" Andrew asked releasing some of the pressure on Duke's throat so that he was able to answer.

"Before we set out we all agreed to stick together and as you can see nobody has stuck to the plan." Duke told Andrew what they both already knew. "So I'm trying to find as many of them as I can, and you happened to be the first person I've found."

"Haven't you ever thought that the others could be actually playing this game?" Andrew asked still with his dueldisk raised.

"They wouldn't." stated Duke as he knew them better than the psycho who had him pinned against the tree. "But you on the other hand, maybe."

Andrew lowered his dueldisk from Dukes throat and stepped back. "I'm sure I can find a way out of this without shedding blood, but if you annoy me before we find anybody else, then I can't promise how I'll react." He turned and walked away.

Rubbing his neck, Duke followed along, and the two of them set out in search of more people.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

It was nightfall and there was no lighting whatsoever on the island, but by the light of the moon Mokuba was able to continue to stare at his locket. An old picture of Kaiba stared back at him and he didn't feel so alone.

"Do you think that he'll be okay?" Mokuba asked Roland as he lay in a bivouac that they had made from a small group of bushes.

"Your brother knows how to take care of himself in any situation." Roland told Mokuba as he kept watch for anybody approaching whilst the boy slept. "I'm sure he's just fine."

Mokuba shut the locket and held it closer to him. He closed his eyes to sleep and dreamt about being reunited with his brother.

Emma sat out in the open in total darkness. Joey lay across her as she tried to keep him warm using her own body heat and both of their jackets. She had managed to ease the bleeding but Joey was very weak and she doubted whether or not he would make it through the night. She tried to keep conversation going between them to keep him conscious.

"Keep talking to me Joey." she begged as he had been quiet for a few moments. "Hang in there; you're going to be okay."

"Serenity?" Joey asked weakly.

"She's not here, but she's okay." Emma told him. "We're going to meet up with her in the morning."

"Good." Joey struggled to reply.

"Stay with me." Emma begged again as he went quiet once more. She gripped at his hand tighter and was relieved when he gripped back.

"I'm cold." he told her, and with one hand she pulled him closer to her and the jackets tighter around them.

"You're going to be okay." Emma had lost count of how many times that she had told him that, and now knew that it was a lie. "Just keep talking."

"Mai, I need to tell you ……….. something." Joey had forgotten who was with him.

"Don't say goodbye." Emma's voice began to waver and broke.

"I'm not going anywhere." Joey said, and Emma could just imagine a smile on his face. "I just wanted to say ... that …. I ………"

Emma waited for Joey to say more but he didn't. She felt his breathing stop as his grip on her hand also gave way. Unable to hold it all in she cried hard as she hugged the lifeless body of her friend.

Kaiba, Sarah and Serenity had taken shelter in a cave that they had found. They had lit a fire to keep them warm, using matches that Sarah had in her bag and branches that they had collected. Serenity was fast asleep, exhausted by her jetlag. Sarah sat by the fire as she kept prodding and fuelling it so that it didn't go out. Kaiba stood at the entrance of the cave as he kept watch.

In his hand Kaiba held a device that Serenity had in her bag. It flashed up the positions of everybody wearing a collar that was within a mile radius. It currently just displayed the three of them. He lowered it and instead took hold of his locket to view the picture of Mokuba who smiled up at him. He made a mental note to have new photos taken once this thing was over with as the one in his locket was almost seven years old.

"Player, Joey, has been eliminated. Twelve players still remaining." the speaker voice called out from the darkness.

Kaiba was shocked to hear the announcement, and even though he and Joey didn't get along he wouldn't have wished for this to happen. He looked at Mokuba's picture and was relieved that it hadn't been him as he knew that he would be unable to bear losing his little brother. Then he thought about Serenity. Her brother had just been killed and she was sleeping blissfully unaware. He closed his locket and returned in to the cave.

Sarah who had also heard the announcement watched as Kaiba approached the sleeping Serenity. She blocked his path. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Don't worry I don't intend to gloat." Kaiba told her as he looked down at Serenity. "Her brother is dead and she deserves to know." He would have wanted the same if it had been Mokuba.

"She needs to rest." Sarah told Kaiba. "Upsetting her further won't do her any good."

Kaiba returned his gaze to Sarah annoyed that she was against his thoughtful gesture. A sly evil smile appeared on his face as he leaned closer to her and said; "If you're asleep when they announce Bakura's death then I won't ………" but he didn't have chance to finish his taunt as Sarah hit him hard across the face.

Sarah stood breathing hard as she stared angrily at Kaiba as he brought his hand up to his cheek and returned her stare with one of his own that was equally, if not more, angry then her own. She broke eye contact with him and stormed off outside the cave.

The wind blew the loose strands of hair across Sarah's face. She pulled the shirt she was wearing, which belonged to Bakura, tightly around her for comfort and warmth. Her eyes were big and watery as she stared up in to the stars. "Ryou, I hope you're safe."

The night was peaceful and silent but a moment later it was broken by Serenity's crying that came from inside the cave.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

It was morning, Roland and Mokuba had been up since dawn searching for Kaiba and the others. Mokuba seemed refreshed from his sleep, and Roland who had been awake all night was still very alert even though he had been awake for over twenty-four hours.

They came to some fallen trees that were piled up in a clearing and spotted Andrew and Duke who were both sleeping. Excitedly Mokuba ran up to them. "Hey guys wake up!"

Andrew awoke with a start as he heard Mokuba and glanced at Duke who was rubbing his eyes as he too had woken up. "You fell asleep!" Andrew said as he grabbed Duke by the throat. "I stayed awake on my watch to make sure that we weren't attacked by anyone who might be playing this game, and this is how you repay me!"

Mokuba stood shocked as he watched the two of them argue,

"I don't see what you're complaining about." Duke protested to Andrew's comments. "You're still alive."

"Yeah, no thanks to you!" Andrew roared.

"Please don't argue." Mokuba said as he tried to talk the two of them out of fighting each other. "We should concentrate on finding the others."

"He's right." Andrew released his hold on Duke as he threw him towards the fallen trees. "I'll deal with you later."

Yami was up a tree looking through a pair of binoculars searching for any sign of the others that may be close by. The other three were sat on the ground as they ate some of their bread for breakfast. Zene had been awake the longest as she awoke from still feeling slightly uneasy about being around the other three.

"Come you see anything?" Bakura shouted up to Yami.

"Not yet. I think it would be a good idea if we … hold on." Yami was about to suggest that they move to some place else when he spotted a group appearing from the other side of a hill. "I see some of the others coming this way. Three of them; Kaiba, Serenity and Sarah." He began to descend the tree.

"Sarah!" Bakura said with a mouthful of bread. He got up and raced off in the direction that Yami had been looking.

"Wait for us!" Tea shouted after him.

The locator bleeped loudly in Kaiba's hand as he and the two girls walked towards the area where five flashing dots where coming from, all of them heading their way. Kaiba looked up to see Bakura in the lead with Yugi, Tea and Zene following right behind. The morning sun shone across his face highlighting the bruise on his left cheek where Sarah had struck him.

As Sarah saw Bakura appear she gave a joyful squeal before she ran towards him. She was so glad to see him that she threw herself in to his open arms, nearly knocking him off balance, and kissed him. "I've been so worried about you, and missed you so much."

"Me too." Bakura kissed her back.

By now the others had gathered where the two love birds stood. "Oh please, do you two have to do that?" Kaiba rolled his eyes.

"Still your usual cheery self I see." Zene laughed, and was met with an un-amused glare from Kaiba.

Tea approached Serenity who looked like she hadn't slept for weeks. "I'm sorry to hear about Joey. I'm here if you want to talk about it." and without warning Serenity collapsed in to sobs as she rest against her.

Feeling uncomfortable about what was happening and trying not to think about his friend's death, Yami turned to Kaiba. "What's that?" he asked.

"It's a locator, which helped us to track you down." Kaiba told him. "Did you leave anyone behind in there?"

"No, it was just the four of us." Yami exclaimed and turned to see the edge of the forest.

"Well then you where being followed." Kaiba pointed out.

"By whom?" Yami asked as he looked at Kaiba as though he could tell from the locator.

"I don't know." Kaiba replied and he flashed a sly smile as he said; "Let's find out."

Kaiba and Yami broke away from the rest of the group, who slowly followed them, as they went to investigate who it was that was coming their way. The bushes began the rustle and Emma emerged from them covered in blood.

"Emma!" the two of them exclaimed at the same time at seeing their friend.

"Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?" Yami asked concerned, whilst Kaiba remained quiet and the others caught up with them.

Emma stared at them all with sore tired eyes. She moved towards Serenity and removed something from her jacket pocket. She handed it to Serenity. "What I've done is unforgivable." she spoke very quietly.

Serenity looked down at her hands and saw the dogtag that Joey always wore. Her eyes filled up with tears. "You killed my brother!" she lashed out and began to continuously hit Emma who just stood there and took each blow.

The others shook their heads in disbelief. All apart from Zene, who had no reason to believe or disbelieve anything about any of them, accept Kaiba.

Seeing that her blows weren't doing anything Serenity turned and rushed to the nearest person and buried her head in their clothing as she continued to cry even more.

Kaiba didn't take too kindly to being the one that Serenity had chosen as she was covering his white coat with her mucus and tears. But he ignored the fact that she was there as he stared coldly at Emma wanting explanations.

Emma stared at Serenity and thought about how much the younger girl was hurting from the lose of her brother. She also felt slightly jealous as she watched her crying on to Kaiba. Without even seeing Kaiba's demanding look she began to explain what had happened. "We were attacked by an eliminator who I managed to kill in self defence, but Joey had been shot in the back by an arrow." She looked up to find everyone, even Serenity, staring at her.

"I tried to carry him to find help but it was useless as nobody was around to hear my cries. He had lost a lot of blood and was very weak. I tried to keep him alive during the night but …." Emma stopped and found herself biting her lip as her eyes watered. "He died in my arms. And everything that he said to me was true." She dropped down to her knees and was crying heavily. "Every person that dies during this game is due to me. I was the one that invited you all here so I'm responsible for all of your lives."

It wasn't long before Emma felt someone's arm around her shoulder. She looked up to see Tea crouched down beside her. She began to cry harder as the person that she had wanted to comfort her was Kaiba. She couldn't believe that after everything she had done for him he wouldn't drop his guard for one moment to comfort a friend in need. She leaned into Tea and continued to cry as she wrapped her arms around her and told her that it wasn't her fault.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Continuing on their search Kaiba led the way as he constantly checked the locator. Yami walked beside him and the rest began to slowly trail behind.

"At least we know that there's only one eliminator out there." Yami tried to make conversation with Kaiba as they walked in silence.

"Your peep talks don't work on me so give it a rest." Kaiba replied to Yami's optimistic remark.

"We have to stop." Zene told them both as she had left the others behind to catch up and block their way.

"What is it now?" Kaiba growled annoyed that he was being forced to stop from the search for his brother. They only had a couple of hours before sunset when they would have to stop to set up camp for the night since they wouldn't be able to carry on their search in the dark.

"We're all exhausted and need to rest." Zene explained and was met with a hateful look from Kaiba. She now understood why nobody else had volunteered to put across this point to him, but also knew that she would always say what was on her mind regardless of what other people would think.

"I agree." Yami stepped in on the conversation.

"Fine!" Kaiba snorted. "As usual, I'll carry on alone." He pushed Zene aside as he set out on his own.

"You're not going to get anywhere by exhausting yourself." Emma shouted out to him as loud as she could back from where she had stopped to catch her breath. She saw him turn round and glare at her. "We will find Mokuba, but right now I think that you should rest too." She wondered why she even bothered to look out for him as he clearly wasn't doing the same for her. She blamed her strong beliefs in friendship for making her this way.

After some hesitation, Kaiba rejoined the group as they began to set up camp for the night as best as they could with what little supplies they had. Emma watched as Kaiba and Yami gathered nearby wood for a fire, Zene sat by herself away from the rest of them, and Tea helped Serenity to get comfortable for a sleep which she needed badly.

Sarah and Bakura couldn't be seen as Emma looked around wildly for her two friends, who she finally saw trailing way back behind the rest of them. She approached the pair of them. "How are you two doing?"

"Given the circumstances, we're doing okay." Bakura replied with a smile on his face which matched Sarah's perfectly, both of them were forced.

"No something's wrong." Emma said shaking her head. "I can see past those fake smiles."

Both of them stopped smiling and it was Sarah who spoke; "It's just that we could do with some time together." she told Emma as though she was asking for permission to leave the group. "Just for a few hours, we'll be back before nightfall."

Emma could see that the pair of them needed their time alone from the others, but didn't like the idea of the group separating. She bit the inside of her check while she decided what to do. "Do you promise?" she asked making sure that they would be back.

Bakura and Sarah both nodded with small smiles on their faces. Emma could tell that they too were fake but not as forced. She had a feeling that she wouldn't be seeing either of them again. She pulled both of them in to a hug. "Well then take care." she told them trying to keep her voice from wavering.

Taking both of their bags with her, Emma returned to the camp alone where she was met with stares from everyone and Kaiba asked what they all wanted to know. "Where are them two going?"

"They need some time to themselves to comfort each other." she told them and glared at Kaiba. "Something which you'd know nothing about." She dropped the bags where she was before making her way to one side away from them as she took off her jacket and made herself a pillow. She curled up on the ground and cried herself to sleep with the hatred that she had for herself.

Mokuba ran to the edge of the river and splashed his face with water. He had been crying after he and the others had come upon a gruesome discovery. He didn't want the others to think he was weak from showing his feelings. He rubbed his sleeve over his face to dry himself before the others caught up with him and had chance to see anything.

"You shouldn't run off like that." Andrew had followed Mokuba who was a surprisingly fast runner. "We might lose you."

"I don't care anymore." Mokuba sniffed. "We're all going to end up like that."

Andrew wasn't sure of the best way to handle the situation. "What would your brother say if he heard you talking like that?" he laughed nervously.

Mokuba closed his eyes and thought of his brother. He had always rescued him before and he was sure that he would do it again, but after what he had just seen, doubts began to fill his mind as the whole game and it's dangers had just become that little bit more real to him.

Roland and Duke had also caught up with the two of them now, and were busy getting their breath back from the running that they had just done.

"I recovered the body and marked the location on the map." Duke told Mokuba through his panting. "We can come back for him later, once this is over."

"Did you see how he died?" Andrew asked curiously wanting to know just what they may have to defend against from a possible attacker.

"It looks like he bled to death from a back wound made by something sharp like a knife or maybe an arrow." Roland said as he had been the one who had looked at Joey's body. "And from the look of things somebody was there caring for him till the end."

"But somebody killed him." Mokuba cried, not feeling at all comforted by Roland's last comment. "Somebody is playing this game."

"When I was sent out, Marcus had been killed in a similar, if not same, way." Andrew said as he thought back to that time. "So the killer is somebody that was released before me."

"Serenity wouldn't ever do anything to hurt Joey." Duke said shaking his head. "And I highly doubt that Sarah would be capable of doing anything like this. So that only leaves Kaiba."

"No!" Mokuba shouted angrily. "Seto wouldn't kill anyone! He's not like that."

"So I guess what happened at the end of Battle City was just my imagination?" Duke asked the younger boy as he referred to the time that Kaiba had blown up his own island. Kaiba and Mokuba left the island in the Blue eyes white jet whilst the rest of them where left stranded, and wouldn't have made it off the island if the medical chopper that had been sent during the duel finals wasn't there.

"That was an accident." Mokuba said quietly.

"Yeah right." Duke smirked as he move away further down the side of the river.

"You're forgetting that there are also two eliminators here too." Andrew spoke up in defence of his duelling idol.

"I'd make that just the one." Duke said as he saw the body of the first eliminator.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Emma awoke from her sleep to find herself alone, only to remember that she had moved away from the rest of the group before she had gone to sleep. She sat up and looked around to see that the others were all lying down and realised that she must have been the first one to wake up.

She moved closer to the rest of the group as she wanted to apologize for the way that she had been behaving, but as she neared them she saw that they had all been shot and were dead. She glanced around at every single one of them and then saw Kaiba, sat on his own as he watched her.

"What happened?" She asked in terrified surprise.

"They got in my way and tried to stop me from finding my little brother." Kaiba told her as he pulled a gun from inside his coat and looked at it. "I'm sure you would have done the same thing if you were in my shoes."

Emma didn't know how to react. She couldn't get her head around what Kaiba had done to her friends. She sank down to her knees and stared right in to the barrel of the gun that Kaiba had now aimed at her.

"And as I recall, you were the one who insisted that we rest." There was pure hatred in his eyes and voice. "So you're just as bad as the rest of them."

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as she watched him pull the trigger. She attempted to cry out as she saw the bullet heading towards her but there was no sound to be heard. She closed her eyes as the bullet was just about to hit her and felt herself falling.

Emma awoke with a start and was close to the verge of tears from her dream. She saw Tea close by who turned and asked; "You alright?"

"Just a bad dream that was all." she assured Tea as she was about to wiped sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her blouse but stopped. Joey's blood had dried on her sleeve and she felt herself shiver as flashbacks entered her mind. She pushed them away and joined the rest of the gang around the fire, "Has anything happened while I was asleep?"

"A danger zone was announced just a few moments ago." Yami told her, and she became worried.

"It's okay as it's miles away from us." Emma was surprisingly assured by Zene, who she hadn't heard say much, or seen interact with anybody besides Kaiba.

Emma glanced at Zene for a moment as she saw her smile back with a forced smile which told Emma told she was hiding something, but what? She continued to look around and didn't see Bakura or Sarah anywhere. She became worried again as the sky was dark and hoped that the two of them were okay.

Together Bakura and Sarah sat gazing up at the stars as they began to appear one by one in the night sky. It was the most beautiful thing that they had ever seen and also the saddest as they both knew that they would never see another night.

"How long now?" Sarah asked as she rested her head on Bakura's shoulder.

Bakura reached over to pick up his watch that was on top of their map which had their location marked out. He stared at it for a moment trying to make out the time from the little light that they had. "Three minutes left." he told her with his voice filled with sadness.

Sarah hugged him tightly as she push him slowly backwards so that they were both lying down, her head rest on his chest as she listened to his heart beat.

"Danger zone is now active." the speaker stated out across the island. "Two players, Bakura and Sarah, have been eliminated. Ten players still remaining."

The news hit Emma like a stab in the heart. "No!" she cried as she pounded the ground.

"It's not your fault." Tea tried to tell her with her own voice shaking.

"I brought them here." Emma cried. "I let them go when I knew that something was wrong, of course it's my fault." she continued to sob hating herself even more.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

Emma decided that she wanted sometime to herself to try and clear her head so had volunteered to collect more wood for the fire. She had ventured off in to the forest with only the moon above lighting her way.

The rest of the group remained around the fire that still burned strongly. Serenity had practically been asleep the whole time that they had set up camp and Zene was almost about to join her as she couldn't fight the temptation to sleep any longer. The other three sat quietly with their own thoughts.

Tea turned and stared at the trees at the edge of the forest. "She's not coming back is she?" She asked no one in particular.

"Of course she is." Kaiba said even though he himself was thinking the same thing.

"Am I the only one who noticed how much she was hurting?" Tea erupted. "She's falling apart and neither of you seem to notice it."

"I have." Yami told her. "But she's a lot stronger than what you think. All we can do is just be there for her when ……."

"Don't start her off on one of her talks about friendship." Kaiba interrupted. "I'm really not in the mood for it right now."

Anger flashed in Tea's eyes at the attitude that Kaiba had over the whole situation. She had had enough of him and lunged at him as she pulled something from her bag. Yami stepped in front of her and yelled for her to stop just as Kaiba got to his feet and went straight for Tea.

The noise woke Zene who was only in a light sleep. She stared at the scuffle that had broken out and saw Yami fall to the ground as Kaiba had hold of Tea and twisted her arm which made her cry out.

"You stupid bitch!" Kaiba screamed at Tea. "Do you realise what you've just done!" There was panic in his voice which almost out weighed his anger.

Tea looked down to the floor where a dagger lay after Kaiba had managed to disarm her. It was the one that she had found in her bag and was covered with blood.

"Player, Yugi, has been eliminated. Nine players still remaining." the speaker announced.

"No!" Tea screamed and somehow managed to break Kaiba's hold on her and ran over to Yugi's body that lay motionless on the ground. She fell to her knees and cried as she buried her face in his body. "No."

"What's going on?" Asked Serenity who had also woken from her sleep. She saw Tea knelt beside Yugi and began to move towards her. "Tea, are you okay?"

"Stay back!" Zene warned Serenity as she didn't know how Tea or Kaiba were still going to react.

Kaiba was breathing hard as he couldn't believe that his rival was now dead. Even though he had never told anyone he saw Yugi as a friend and his death was beginning to affect him. "Congratulations, you've just killed our friend!" Kaiba screamed at Tea with his eyes starting to water. He didn't care that he had let it slip about how he felt towards Yugi. He pushed aside his feelings and hardened his voice. "How does it feel to be a murderer?"

Tea was still crying over her friend's death. She brushed some of Yugi's hair out of his face before she stood up. "It was meant to be you." She told Kaiba as she went for him, but found that Kaiba was ready for her as he grabbed her by both wrists as she tried to pummel him. "You don't care about anyone but yourself so there's nobody that would miss you, not even Mokuba."

"Is that so?" Kaiba asked as he tried to remain calm and from striking back at Tea. "Well at least this way I don't have to worry about feeling guilty after killing somebody that cares for me." He released his grip on Tea and she fell to the ground crying once more. "I hope you can live with yourself for what you've done." he told her as he walked towards Yugi.

Serenity was also in tears by what she had seen and began to back away from the other three remaining members of the group as she was now terrified that they would go for her next, but she was pulled back by Zene. "Believe me when I say that you'll be safer here with us." she was told by the older girl. "At least that way you know that there are less people waiting in the darkness to leap out and attack you."

Tea was now flooded with guilt at what she had just done, and felt ashamed that she had snapped when people needed her to confined in, but she was only human after all and had limits just like everybody else. She reached out and took hold of the dagger. "I'm sorry for what I've done." she said as she raised it and stabbed herself several times in the stomach.

Emma had started to rush back to the others as soon as she had heard the announcement about Yugi's death. She was almost back there when she heard; "Player, Tea, has been eliminated. Eight players still remaining."

She quickened her pace once she could see the light given off by the fire, and froze as she came to the clearing and saw a terrified Serenity held by an almost equally terrified Zene. Yugi's body lay on the floor whilst Kaiba was holding Tea's body and covered in blood. She gasped at the sight as she stepped backwards and automatically drew their attentions to herself.

Kaiba stared directly at her. "It's not what it looks like." he told her as he saw the doubt and fear that was in her eyes, but Emma turned and re-entered the forest.

Emma ran as fast as she could deeper in to the forest and away from the others. It was dark and she could hardly see where she was going but hearing the footsteps behind her motivated her to carry on as she had lost all trust in everyone but herself. She found it difficult to run in the shoes that she was wearing and knew that her chaser was almost behind her so she threw herself in to some bushes hoping that they would conceal her from their view.

She lay there holding her breath as she heard somebody stop right next to the bushes where she hid, they panted hard as they tried to get their breath back. She looked out to see who it was that had followed her but it was too dark, and then by chance the moonlight reflected off from Kaiba's white coat.

"I didn't kill either of them!" Kaiba cried out in to the darkness of the forest. "It was Tea, she tired to attack me but Yugi got in the way, and then she felt guilty and killed herself." He panted and swallowed more breaths before he added; "I swear on Mokuba's life that it is the truth."

Emma was relived to hear what Kaiba had just said, even though she did find it hard to believe that Tea could have done such a thing, but she knew that Kaiba would never swear on his brother's life unless he really did mean it. And yet she wasn't willing to move from her hiding place as there was still a large amount of doubt and confusion built up inside her which she needed to sort out first.

"Kaiba!" Both Serenity and Zene shouted together. Kaiba heard them call but seemed determined not to leave without Emma.

"I apologize for the way I've been acting, but you know what I'm like around the Geek Squad." he called out but not as loudly as before. He paused for a moment as he hesitated over what he was about to say. "The truth is that I'm scared just as much as the rest of you, but someone has to keep it all together otherwise we'll all lose."

"Kaiba!" the two girls shouted again.

He looked around hoping that he'd be able to spot some sign of her, but Kaiba couldn't see a thing. "Please don't leave me." he whispered, before he turned and headed back to the two girls who were calling him.

Once she thought he was far enough away, Emma sat up and rested against a tree. She thought about everything that had just been said to her, but she felt so helpless as there was nothing that she could do to get them out of the situation. She sniffed as she tried not to beak out in to yet more tears. As she closed her eyes the millennium key around her neck began to glow and she felt her self fall backwards in to the tree.

Duke was on guard watch as the other three slept. Andrew had been reluctant to let Duke sit watch after the previous night so as an extra measure they had set up a trap made from some thin wire cable and a mirror that Mokuba and Duke's bags had contained.

But Duke didn't seem to have a problem staying awake after seeing what they had found earlier and hearing about his friends as they were slowly being eliminated. He closed his eyes and prayed that this would all end soon, but opened them again as light was being shone in his eye.

The trap they had set had been triggered as the wire tugged at the mirror which hung above them and reflected the moonlight down to them. "Hey wake up." Duke said as he attempted to wake each of them.

"What is it?" Andrew asked sleepily, and then noticed that the mirror swayed from side to side.

Roland pulled out a gun and had it ready to shoot at the intruder. "You three go on ahead. I'll check it out and catch up to you."

"But …." Mokuba protested as he was being pushed along by Andrew who told him in an impolite way to 'move it.'

They walked slowly and almost silently through the pitch black forest and turned in amazement when a flare in the sky suddenly lit their way. "I wonder who did that." Duke said.

"Roland did." Mokuba said in a concerned voice and explained to the other two; "The gun he had wasn't his own, just a flare gun that was in the bag he was given."

"Player, Roland, has been eliminated. Six players still remaining." came the announcement.

"Come on," said Andrew pushing at them both. "Let's get moving and quicken the pace while we're at it."

"Six?" Duke said confused. "By my calculations there should be seven players left. Unless we missed at elimination announcement!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

She opened her eyes and all that Emma could see was the blue eyes of a stranger looking down at her. She jumped from the surprise and pushed herself backwards away from the boy who was stood over her. Her surroundings where different from the forest that she had been in, and was now a big wide open space that seemed to have the patterns of computer chipboards glowing above them.

"Are you alright?" asked the younger boy who seemed concerned.

"I think so." Emma replied as she rubbed her head convinced that she was dreaming.

"I can't believe that you managed to escape the programme." the boy laughed. "It was supposed to be designed so that nobody could escape it." The boy still continued to laugh as though there had been some joke that Emma had missed.

"Who are you?" Emma asked as she rose to her feet hoping that her height over the boy would intimidate him.

"My name is Noah." he told her with confidence in his voice, "Like you I am also trapped here, although not in the same way."

Emma stared at the boy in amazement. "Noah Kaiba?" she asked as she remembered that Mokuba and the gang had spoken about a step brother of Kaiba's who had tried to trap them all in a virtual world that he himself was trapped in. Kaiba, like he did with many things, had refused to comment on the subject.

"You've heard of me then." Noah smirked.

"Yes. I know all about the virtual world incident, but you're …." She wasn't sure what would be the right word to use; dead, erased, deleted? "… well whatever you are you don't exist anymore, so you can't be here." Her head was spinning from confusion. "What is going on here?"

"When the previous virtual world was destroyed I too should have been, as I had stayed behind to keep my father trapped there." Noah began to explain everything that Emma wanted to know. "But he managed to overpower me and escaped on to the internet, dragging me along with him. Since then he's been trying to brake in to Kaiba Corp's systems but so far hadn't seceded as Seto's security was too high. So instead he decided to gain control of a smaller company to gain his trust so that he could worm his way in and strike when the time was right."

"And he chose Checkmate." Emma said as she thought out aloud. She knew that there had been something dodgy about the whole thing, and realised just how bad a pun it was.

"He helped them to create the 3DTV technology that he knew Seto would love to get hold of." Noah continued to explain. "He then created this disturbed programme and found a way to link the two. The images projected caused you all to have a seizure similar to that caused by epilepsy, but in fact your minds became trapped within the programme."

"So we're just thinking that all of this is just happening but its not?" Emma asked to make sure that she had understood what Noah had said so far, and she saw him nod his head. It was like a huge weight had been lifted from her as most of the guilt and hatred that she had been feeling disappeared and was replaced with the hope of seeing all of her friends again. "Then that means that nobody has died and that things really are going to be okay."

"Not quite." Noah shook his head, and Emma's hopes faltered. "When the person is eliminated during the game simulation their mind returns to their body only to remain in a coma-like state. The only way that they'll be awoken is if someone wins the game and destroys the programme."

"But they all think that the game is real so how are they going to know about the programme?" Emma felt herself beginning to panic. She grabbed hold of Noah by his shoulders. "You have to help me destroy it."

"I've tried to destroy it myself!" Noah cried as he broke free from Emma's hold and turned away from her. He looked back over his shoulder and spoke with sadness in his voice. "It's the least that I could do after everything that I've done to my brothers, but my father is far stronger then me."

"That's right, and don't you forget it you worthless excuse for a son!" The voice of Gozaburo Kaiba boomed from above them.

Noah looked up terrified just before he was hit by a bolt of electricity which blasted him across the ground where he landed on his front. Emma ran to check that he was okay and turned him over so that he now lay on his back. He groaned from the pain that he felt, and Emma's anger began to rise up inside her.

"So you think that you can stop my fun do you?" Gozaburo asked as he materialized before Emma's angry eyes. "Well guess again." Electricity erupted from Gozaburo and was heading straight for Emma and Noah.

The anger that Emma was now feeling had caused the millennium key to activate and it surrounded Noah and herself in a force-field that reflected the bolts right back towards where they had come from.

"What's this!" Gozaburo exclaimed in surprise as he watched the bolt fade before it struck him.

"It's a power that's far greater and older than your own." Emma said as she carefully placed Noah on the ground, rose to her feet and began to approach Gozaburo as her anger took control of her. She waved her hand and the two of them became encased in another force-field, leaving Noah out of harms way as she summoned the power to place the two of them in to a shadow game. "Whoever loses the game we are about to play will be sucked in to the shadows for eternity." she told the old man. "And luckily for you, you get to decide what game we will be playing."

"What kind of game." Gozaburo smirked at the idea that he was being challenged by a girl.

"Anything that sets us against one and other." Emma told him as an evil smile forced up the corners of her lips. "I personally hope that you choose one to one combat, as I would take great pleasure in tearing you apart for _everything _that you've ever done to Seto." She stared at Gozaburo to let him know that she knew about the abuse that she had seen from the video pop-ups which Kaiba had shown her almost a couple of months ago.

"I'm surprised that you know about that." Gozaburo smirked. "I though Seto would have kept that shameful little secret to himself."

"He has nothing to be ashamed for." Emma yelled as she lost control of her temper for a split second. "Just hurry up and pick your game."

Gozaburo laughed to himself as he saw that he had touched a sensitive spot, and was surprised that Kaiba had ever found somebody that seemed willing to do anything for him. "Its too bad that we don't have a chess board." he said only to see one appear as soon as he had spoken. The girl didn't have a chance of seceding against him at his specialized game. "Well then, I guess its ladies first."

Emma started the game as she moved one of her pawns forward two spaces. They continued to play and Gozaburo started to take Emma's main pieces one by one.

At the moment he had her in check with one of his knights. She had to move her king but in doing so she lost her queen. "You should have taken better care of your queen since it is one of the most important pieces of the game." he taunted her as he removed it from the board.

Emma ignored him and continued as she knew that it was possible to win without most of the pieces that she had lost. She had noticed that Gozaburo was focused on removing the main pieces and had over looked some of the moves that she had made with her pawns. She had managed to line up three of them diagonally at the edge of the board ready to make her move and claim victory. She just hoped that Gozaburo would fall for the trap she had set.

She moved her bishop so that his king became in check. She watched as Gozaburo made his move instantly without thinking as he castled the king with the rook at the side of the board where Emma's pawns were waiting. She had been right as he had made his move based on the chance to take Emma's bishop with his next go. He looked up at her as she sweated from keeping her face claim so as not to give away her plan.

Slowly Emma reached out for the pawn that was at the edge of the board and moved it forward one space. "Checkmate." she said in a smug voice as she saw Gozaburo's jaw drop from not noticing the trap she had set, which had left him unable to move on his next turn, making Emma the winner. "You should have paid more attention to my pawns."

"No I don't believe it!" Gozaburo said in disbelief as the shadows began to wind themselves around him to drag him in to the darkness.

The force-field had disappeared and Emma stepped back to join Noah who had returned to his feet and witnessed most of the chess game.

"If I'm going then I'm taking you both with me." Gozaburo snapped as he sent a lasso of electricity towards Emma and Noah.

Emma didn't have the emotions needed to activate the millennium key so she knew that a force-field was out of the question this time as she was prepared for it to snag the pair of them. But it never got the chance as it was repelled by a force that Noah had managed to conjure up as they watched the last of Gozaburo disappear forever.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

After hearing the announcement about Roland's death, Kaiba did not hesitate to continue his search for Mokuba. It was almost dawn and he, Serenity and Zene had already trekked for some hours, before the locator had started to bleep. But as they now followed the signals that it had picked up, Kaiba knew that they would soon be seeing his brother.

He hadn't planned on leaving Emma behind, but knew that she would understand the situation that he faced. But still Kaiba felt uneasy with the two girls who were practically strangers to him and would have felt better if he had somebody there that he bonded with.

It was only then that he realized it was his own fault for the isolation he had caused himself. It wasn't like there weren't people who wanted to get to know him, but he had become so use to pushing people aside that may of them were now dead and the chances to become friends gone.

He suddenly felt all alone and quietly spoke the chorus of a song that he had heard Emma listening to a few days earlier. Strangely enough it kind of reminded him of her;

"All of this from a girl who's

Scared of the spiders

And she's scared of the dark

She's scared of the bogeymen in the park

But if anybody comes near me

I know she'll cut their balls off"

Kaiba looked up from the locator and in the distance saw Mokuba standing with Duke and Andrew. "Mokuba!" he called out at the top of his voice and was unable to hide his joy as his brother turned towards him and began to run closer.

Zene and Serenity collapsed on to the ground as they were exhausted to go any further. At least now they knew where everyone was and didn't have to worry about being eliminated anymore. Zene still had her doubts but at the moment she was willing to trust both Kaiba and Serenity since they had made it this far together, and possibly even the other three since the eliminations that had been announced were mainly people who she had been travelling with. Perhaps other people weren't as bad as she imagined.

Kaiba dropped the locator since it had served its purpose of helping him find Mokuba and ran to meet his brother half way. All of his loneliness seemed to disappear at the sight and though of being reunited with the one person he wouldn't be able to live without.

"Seto!" Mokuba shouted happily and laughed as he raced towards him. He felt as though it was taking forever to be with his brother again but knew that nothing could separate them now that they were together again.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion as parts of earth were thrown up in to the air. Kaiba used his arm to shield his face as the earth rained down on him. When it had stopped he lowered his arm and the sight that met him was unbearable for him to handle. On the ground Mokuba was sprawled out in all directions as his body had been twisted from the explosion of the landmine that he had triggered.

"Mokuba!" Kaiba screamed and rushed to where he lay. There were tears built up in his eyes as he lifted Mokuba in to his arms. Black hair covered Mokuba's face which Kaiba moved out of the way to see his brother look as though he was peacefully sleeping. "Wake up, Mokuba." he said in a tearful voice as he gently shook him.

"Player, Mokuba, has been eliminated. Five players still remaining." the speaker called out.

By the time that the other four had reached the tragically reunited Kaiba brothers, Kaiba had already pulled Mokuba close to him, his face buried in his chest as he shook and wept silently.

Emma had tried as hard as she could to reactivate the millennium key, whilst Noah tried to summon up a control panel to allow him to try and gain access to the programme's data so that they could open a window for Emma to re-enter the game.

"Maybe we'd have more luck if we worked together." Emma said as she approached Noah and placed the chain of her millennium item around his neck so that it now hung on them both. "Just focus on opening up the window that we need."

Together they closed their eyes and thought only of escaping from where they were. The millennium key began to glow and a computer screen and keyboard appeared.

"It worked." Noah could hardly control his amazement as he ducked out from under the chain and began to type away at the keyboard. Emma watched the screen as the images changed as Noah was circling through all of the views of the game that were available. "I've found them." he said as he zoomed in to the group of people that were out it the open.

Emma was glad to see that Kaiba and the girl's had found Duke and Andrew, but as she looked closer she could see Mokuba's dead body as Kaiba cradled him in a similar way to that of a parent would hold a small child. "This could tear him apart." she gasped and turned to Noah. "Come on lets go."

"You're taking me out of this place!" Noah asked in surprise.

"Unless you want to stay here." she replied as she held out the still glowing millennium key in front of the screen. She quickly found that Noah and herself were being pulled through to the other side and back in to the game, and as soon as her friends appeared before her Emma strode straight up to where Kaiba was.

"Where did you come from?" Zene sounded shocked at just seeing Emma appear out of nowhere.

Emma hadn't heard Zene as she was too focused on Kaiba. All she wanted to do was to hug and comfort him, but knew that she wouldn't be able to keep herself together for him if she did. He had told her earlier that somebody had to remain strong otherwise none of them would make it out of the game, and knew that at that moment she was the one who had to be strong for them. The only thing that was keeping her from breaking down was the fact that she now knew that none of what they had experienced was real, but she knew that Kaiba wouldn't believe it even if she tried to explain everything. She just had to get everyone out and end all this as soon as possible.

"Seto get up." Emma ordered Kaiba in a stern voice. She didn't like the way she was sounding but knew that it was necessary. "It's just a computer programme designed by Gozaburo to mess with your head, none of this is real." Kaiba didn't seem to hear a word of what she had just said as he continued to stare blankly at Mokuba.

Noah made his way across to Kaiba, causing Serenity to gasp at the sight of him. He knelt down beside his step-brother. "She's right Seto, Mokuba's not dead. Please don't let father succeed in discouraging you."

"What the hell's going on?" Duke asked.

"We're trapped inside a computer programme." Emma explained as basically as she could while she still stared down towards the three Kaiba brothers. "All we have to do is get out of the programme and destroy it to return everything back to normal."

"So we've been inside some kind of computer game?" Andrew asked slightly confused. "But how, why?"

"Its nothing that you need to know." Emma snapped as she removed the millennium key from around her neck and moved away from Kaiba towards the others. "Right now we all have to get out of here, so everybody gather round." The four of them did as they were told, but Kaiba stayed where he was, and Noah still beside him.

"What about Kaiba?" Serenity asked.

"I'll stay with him." Noah assured. "There has to be at least one of you remaining in the game."

"No." Emma told Noah firmly. "I need your help in the real world."

"But I can't do anything because I don't have a body." Noah protested.

"Just stick close to me and the millennium key." Emma told Noah as he joined the rest of them.

"So you're going to leave him here and alone." Zene glared at Emma unable to accept that Kaiba was to be left behind.

Emma sadly stared at Kaiba. She didn't want to leave him but there was no other way that she could do what she had to do. She turned to Zene. "Please stay with him. The last thing that I want to do is leave a friend alone, but I have to go and do this. It's the only way to stop this nightmare."

Zene hesitated for a moment as she didn't like the idea of being left behind either, but she nodded in agreement as she could think of worse things than being left alone with Seto Kaiba. She broke away from the little group and walked to stand beside Kaiba.

She order the others to focus on where they needed to go, and Emma used the powers of her millennium key to transport them out of the game and programme, and back in to the real world.

Zene watched them disappear as she sat herself down beside Kaiba. The locator was too far away for her to hear the bleeps that it made.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

As they woke up almost simultaneously, Emma, Duke, Serenity and Andrew all gasped for breath. They looked around themselves as they regained control for their breathing, and saw the others scattered around the room. They where either laid on the floor or slumped against one and other where they had been before the seizures were caused. Looking like they were sleeping, not a single one of them showed any signs of injury.

As she glanced down at the millennium key which glowed as a result from it containing Noah's spirit, Emma quickly scrambled back on to her feet. "You guys stay here and make sure that the others are still breathing." she told the three that she had brought with her back in to reality. "I'm going to go up to the main system for this thing." She left them behind as she made her way to the staircase which led up to the control room that looked down in to the presentation room.

Once in the room Emma approached the main computer and took the millennium key from around her neck. "I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing on these things so it up to you now." she said to Noah as she held the ankh in front of the screen so that he could transfer to inside the Kaiba Corp system.

Noah appeared on the screen and told Emma his plan. "Bit by bit, I'm going to forward all of the programme's data on to the screen in front of you. From that point on all that you have to do is highlight it and press delete."

"Okay, sounds simple enough." Emma confirmed as she searched for the correct keyboard to use from the choice of three in front of her and sighed; "All that hard work that Seto did is going to be destroyed, isn't there a way of saving some of it?"

"You can make a copy of the system's data and then go through it at a later date." Noah told her.

"Will that be safe?" Emma asked as she didn't want anything like this happening ever again.

"Yes." Noah replied. "As long as this part of the programme isn't activated again."

Emma thought about the risks of retriggering the deadly game, and also about all the effort that Kaiba had spent on the programme himself. She didn't want him to lose such a huge chunk of his hard work and decided that she would check the disk herself when she was alone to prevent anything bad from happening to him. She clicked on the icon on the screen that would copy the data and hoped she knew what she was getting herself in to.

Back in the game Zene sat near to where Kaiba was still knelt beside Mokuba's body. He hadn't said a word or even removed his sight from his brother.

Zene was beginning to feel very uncomfortable with the situation which was making her feel alone and abandoned. She hadn't realized just how frightening being alone could be and prayed for the end of the game so that things would return back to normal.

She talked to Kaiba even though she wasn't getting anything back in response as it was the only way she could keep herself together. "I wouldn't have thought it was possible either if I hadn't seen them disappear like that, but now I know that everything will be okay." she laughed nervously as she forced herself to smile. She had made an art out of hiding her true feelings.

"I know that you're in shock and that you probably won't remember any of this but …" Zene paused from what she was about to say. For a moment she felt weak as she was about to reveal her own thoughts and feelings on what they had all experience so far in the game. At least it was to someone she trusted and respected and not some phoney friend that she knew in her normal life. "I think that what has happened here is a good thing." She stopped herself from saying more as what she had to say would have sounded heartless to anybody who took the time to listen.

Kaiba turned his head to face her and glared at Zene, who felt like she shouldn't have said anything at all by keeping her mouth shut. But she couldn't stop herself from saying what she truly thought even if it had seemed to offend one of the few people the she admired. She didn't even think that Kaiba had been listening as nobody else seemed to lately.

Wishing that she could have taken back her last comment Zene tried to explain what she had meant by it. "What I mean is that we've been exposed to situations that we wouldn't have otherwise and as a result have seen other sides to people that we wouldn't have thought we'd ever see." She couldn't believe what she was saying as she always kept her feelings to herself. Was this the side of her that she didn't know she had? She hung her head as though she was shameful of what she had said and pulled her knees up to grasp. "I just think that its made us realise that we all have hopes and fears that we're not fully aware of. Maybe its even helped us all to become better and stronger people."

Zene felt her throat tighten up and eyes water but couldn't find an explanation to its cause. She was glad that her hair was hanging down beside and in front of her face as it gave her the cover that she needed to regain control of her emotions. Unexpectedly, she felt Kaiba place his hand on top of hers. She looked up and once her vision was free from hair, she saw that Kaiba had a comforting smile on his face. She had chance to smile back weakly just before Kaiba knocked her backwards as the sound of machine gun bullets filled the air. It didn't last long and was followed by the sound of somebody cursing from lack of ammunition.

Terrified, Zene lay with Kaiba's bodyweight pinning her down. She managed to push him off her as she struggled free. On seeing the blood she realised that he had been protecting her by taking all of the bullet shots. "Kaiba!" she yelled as she pushed at him rocking him from side to side. He didn't respond and quietly she whispered; "Seto?"

"Player, Kaiba, has been eliminated. One player still remaining." the speaker told Zene what she already knew.

Tears began to run down Zene's cheeks which she didn't even bother to attempt to wipe away. "I'll see you again soon." she told Kaiba as she knew that it would all be over soon and that they'd all wake up back in the real world.

"Allow me to help!" came a chilling voice from behind Zene as the remaining eliminator wrapped the thin wire thread around her neck. He may have been out of bullets but the item he found during the night would do just as good a job of eliminating his last target.

"What's taking her so long!" Andrew complained as he stood in the middle of the presentation room.

"Almost done!" Emma shouted down from the control room as she had heard Andrew's comment loud and clear.

"I'm having some trouble accessing the last bit of data." Noah told her as he struggled to make it appear on screen.

"Can you hurry it up a little!" Emma heard Duke shout up above some noise that had broken out where he was.

Whilst Noah was taking care of the programme, Emma approached the window to tell them to calm down below. When she looked out she saw that an image appeared on the TV screen and was shocked by what it displayed. She saw Kaiba's body covered in blood and Zene being attacked by an eliminator who was trying to strangle her. With everything happening so fast she had completely forgotten about the second eliminator. She had to delete the programme before Zene was eliminated otherwise all was lost and the others would remain in their coma-like status.

"I don't mean to sound rude but; _try harder_!" Emma told Noah as she returned to the computer. "If we don't end this soon then its all been for nothing."

On the screen, Zene had managed to force herself backwards and throw the eliminator over herself. She removed the wire from around her neck which hadn't dug in too hard since some of it had been caught around her collar. She only just had time to dive out of the way as the eliminator came charging towards her. She slipped and felt the hard ground beneath her as she fell. Quickly getting back on to her feet she prepared herself as the eliminator made one last attempt and forced her to the ground as he charged at her once more.

"Game Over." The speaker voice said it's final announcement.

"No!" Emma cried and rushed to the window to see what had become of Zene.

Zene was covered by the eliminator who moved slightly, but only from the fact that she had to crawl her way out from under him. Almost free from his weight she kicked wildly at his arm that had become entangled with the belt that hung down to her knee, which caused the eliminator to roll over on to his back. There in his chest directly buried in to his heart was a small flip knife that Zene had been given in the bag at the start of the game. She had used all of her mixed emotions to help her find the strength that she needed to survive to make it back to the real world, and so she had won the game. All she had to do now was wait. Alone.

"She won." Emma laughed with relief. She wanted to get Zene out of that place as quickly as she could before the loneliness had time to take effect upon her, but suddenly Zene's collar began to glow. "Why is her collar glowing?" she asked Noah hoping that he would have the answer.

"I don't know." Noah replied as he finally managed to display the rest of the data and himself on the computer screen. A terrifying thought came to him. "My father may have programmed it to eliminate everyone, regardless of whether or not there was a winner."

Emma saw Zene's collar start to flash, and she pushed herself away from the window and back in Noah's direction. "We have to end this now!"

Noah highlighted everything on the screen, including himself. "Just press delete." he told Emma.

"But you're on the screen." Emma protested as her finger hovered about the delete button. "Won't that delete you too?"

"It will." Noah replied. "But there's no other way that I can keep the data displayed otherwise."

Emma looked sadly at Noah as he stared out from the screen at her. He hadn't seemed like a bad person to her and she wished that there had been something that she could have done for him. _The lives of the many out weigh his own_; Emma told herself as she closed her eyes and pressed down on the button.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Everybody began to wake up, many of them gasping for breath as they did so, but all of them were glad to be free of the nightmare that they had just encountered. There were hugs and tears almost all round as they all were so happy to see each other. Feeling secluded from the rest of them Marcus, Andrew and Zene sat in a group to one side of the room.

The Kaiba brothers had just finished showing their concerns about each other as Mokuba headed off towards Roland who was still by the door. Kaiba found himself alone for a split second before he was approached by Joey.

"Hey Kaiba!" Joey said as he approached.

"What is it Wheeler?" Kaiba replied wishing that Joey would leave him alone once more. At the same time he was also glad to see that he was alive and well.

"I ….. er …….." Joey shuttered as he wasn't sure what the best thing to say was. "…… just wanted to say thank you, for looking after my little sister. I know you'll probably say something like; _'I was only looking out for myself'_, but it really means a lot to me what you did back there."

Kaiba was just as much surprised about what Joey was saying as Joey himself was, and still he continued; "I guess you're not as big a jerk as I think you are."

"I'll take that as a compliment, you mutt." Kaiba replied with an amused smile on his face.

Joey just turned and walked away back to Serenity. "Same old Kaiba." he laughed to himself.

Kaiba glanced around the room and saw that there was one face missing and wondered where Emma was. As his eyes rested upon the three guests for the disastrous occasion he slowly began to make his way over to them.

"I just wanted to pay my thanks to you both." Kaiba spoke down to where Andrew and Zene sat; ignoring the fact that Marcus was there. He extended his hand to Andrew. "Without you my brother may not have made it as far as he did." Their hands broke apart and he offered it to Zene. "And without you …." he stopped not sure of the best way to say what he felt about her staying behind and comforting him.

"You don't have to say anything." Zene told him back as she wore a genuine smile. "I already know."

Kaiba smiled back and turned to leave them as he continued his search for Emma. He heard Marcus cough trying to get his attention after he had just blanked him. He turned and stared towards Marcus who glared back. He had no reason to thank him for anything, and didn't like the guy from the first moment he saw him.

"I almost forgot!" Kaiba said rather sarcastically. He re-approached them and leant closer to Marcus and in a stern voice told him; "Stop trying to be someone else and get your own life." before he left once again.

"I'm going to sue your ass off for this whole thing!" Marcus shouted angrily towards Kaiba.

"I'd like to see you try." Kaiba laughed and ignored the further abuse that Marcus yelled. As he was passing by the staircase that led to the control room Emma began to make her way down.

"Yay, you did it!" shouted quite a few people as Emma appeared.

"I guess congratulations are in order." Kaiba told her as she stepped down on to the floor. "It seems like there's nothing you can't do."

"There are lots of things that I can't do like; read a map, swim, spell ………" Emma began to joke but drifted off as she found herself drawn into an embrace by Kaiba which surprised her as the 'Geek Squad' were still around. She stared over his shoulder and saw everybody staring at them, and knew that Joey wouldn't be able to let this incident go unnoticed. "..but I don't have the time to list them all." she finished as they pulled apart and she blushed slightly.

Looking down at the floor, Emma wiped a tear from her eye. She was glad to be back in the real world and have all of her friends back but she wouldn't be able to forget about Noah. She looked back up at Kaiba and tried to hide her sadness with a smile. "I can't take all of the credit as a lot of it is thanks to Noah."

"Noah." Kaiba laughed to himself. "Where is the little punk? I guess I do owe him some thanks."

Emma dropped the smile on her face. "He deleted himself to destroy the programme." she told him sadly.

Kaiba remained silent as he thought about what Emma had said. "Please, not a word of this to Mokuba." He told her, and Emma nodded in agreement. He stepped aside to let Emma pass so that she could get her greetings from the rest of her friends.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

Emma was travelling home from a long day's work. She wasn't having much luck as the public transport was appalling. She had missed her train as she had turned up just in time to see it pull out of the station, and had to wait for the next one which was delayed. It was at times like these that she wished she did take up Kaiba's offer of the use of the limos, but she already had enough to deal with from Joey without making it any worse.

_Her mind wondered back to the events of two weeks ago, after they had escaped from the game they had become trapped in. She still smiled at the thought of the hug that she had received from Kaiba in front of the gang, even though that was what Joey kept using to tease her. _

_She was surprised at how well everybody had been handling the horrible experience that they had all been through together. Mokuba was still the same cheerful and happy person as always and Kaiba had insisted that he wasn't affected by the whole thing, but Emma had noticed small changes in his behaviour like how he now didn't turn cold towards her and blank her out whenever any of the gang was around. _

_The gang too were unaffected since they had been though so many strange things since Yugi had put together the millennium puzzle together that it seemed almost like an everyday occurrence to be trapped inside a virtual world. Sarah on the other hand had just had her first experience of the type of weird things that Bakura had told her about, but was now aware of things that she might have to put up with in the future. Of course she was still unaware of all of the incidents involving the spirit of the millennium ring, but there was no need to drag up the past since that problem had been sorted._

_The three guests, although they were a bit shaken from the whole thing, handled it extremely well. As a way of apologising and compensating, Kaiba had agreed to give the three guests whatever they desired. Only Marcus had turned down Kaiba's offer as he was set on suing Kaiba Corp for all that he could, but strangely enough he hadn't been heard from again. Andrew's request for a duel against Kaiba was granted. He had played a good duel which saw him beat two of Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragons as well as reducing his life points down to just 50, but he hadn't been able to stand up to Kaiba's third Blue Eyes White Dragon. Zene was now the proud owner of the only official Seto Kaiba website, which featured everything that there was to know about him and his company all in one place. Well as much as Kaiba was willing to share with the public anyway, and he had even agreed to do exclusive interviews and web chats from time to time, thanks to a little persuasion from Mokuba who was secretly working on the case for Emma._

_Further investigation in to Checkmate had been made, which found that three of their representatives had memory loss due to brain washing but no other connections to Gozaburo's interference had been found. Kaiba still planned to go along with the deal despite all that had happened as the technology involved was something that he couldn't let slip pass him. Unfortunately there was no record of the data on Checkmate's system and the data stored on the Kaiba Corp system had been deleted by Emma and Noah, so the whole deal fell apart. Emma had wanted to tell Kaiba about the copy of the disk that she had done, but didn't want to get his hopes up before she had checked the whole thing for herself first._

Placing her key into her apartment door Emma snapped back to the here and now, surprised at just how fast time flies when your thoughts are someplace else. She kicked off her shoes as she closed the front door and made her way into the kitchen where she began to make herself a cup of tea. She went to set up her laptop on the breakfast bar and typed away until her screen went blank.

'Sorry I'm late. I got stuck on public transport, again.' She typed before picking up the disk that she had copied two weeks back which lay on the bar top. She had searched it for anything that may have been of use for Kaiba to use but had found very little on the disk itself.

'Its okay, it's not like I'm going anywhere. How was your day?' Was the message displayed on her laptop screen when she returned.

'Same as usual. And you?' She typed back before moving away to finish off making her tea.

'Success!' Was displayed when she arrived back and seated herself down. 'I finally tracked down the last remaining source that the pop-ups where being sent from and deleted it. I'm a little disappointed that father's codes were so easy to crack, but at least Seto doesn't have to put up with them anymore.'

Emma smiled as she began to type her response. One of the few things that she did find on the disk was Noah, who must have saved his data on the disk when they tried to copy the programme data. 'Thank you.' She now knew that Kaiba wouldn't be tormented by his past any longer.

'I also updated Zene's site and your firewall with the spare time that I had.' Noah told her while she sipped her tea. He didn't wait for her to reply before he posted again. 'So what now?'

Emma placed her cup on the bar as she thought about Noah's question. They hadn't thought that far ahead. What was she supposed to do with him now that he had helped her to help his step-brother? She couldn't tell Mokuba about him as she had promise Kaiba that she wouldn't mention anything about Noah's role in their horrid game experience. She also knew that Kaiba didn't think too fondly of Noah, and wouldn't know where to start explaining about the copied disk, so decided against telling him about her discovery. She typed on the keyboard. 'Any good at Sudoku?'

'Why?' Was Noah's reply.

'You're going to need something to do until I get home from work each day.' Emma typed as she smiled to herself.

'Well I guess I could redecorate.' Emma laughed at Noah's reply as the screen began to change through all different kinds of colour schemes and designs. Having Noah around was just what she needed to keep her company for when the other two Kaiba brothers set out for America. But of course Noah would remain around for a lot longer than that.

The End


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